Right-wing publishers worry about future

NEW YORK - There were books advocating the public role of Christianity and the soundness of the free market, an attack on the liberal "elite" by Laura Ingraham and a memoir by Lynne Cheney, wife of the vice president.

The conservative works on display at BookExpo America, which ended Sunday, could be seen as a tribute to the diversity of right-wing publishing and the movement in general. But, publishers say, they’re really a sign of an industry, and of a political movement, wondering what to do next.

"The conservative market is not unified, there are many fractures," says Marji Ross, president and publisher of Regnery Publishing, which for 60 years has been releasing conservative works, including Ingraham’s upcoming "Power to the People."

"It’s a reflection of the culture, and a reflection of the Republican party, which is being torn in different directions," added Steve Ross (no relation to Marji Ross), head of the Crown Publishing Group, which includes the conservative imprint, Crown Forum, where authors include Ann Coulter.

Brand name writers like Coulter, who has a book out this fall, continue to top best seller lists. But publishers say they are struggling to find books with broad themes to engage and energize right-wing readers like the anti-Clinton books of the 1990s or the 2005 best seller, Newt Gingrich’s "Winning the Future."

"The submissions are more narrowly focused, on a single issue," said Marji Ross, who added that sales in 2006 were the softest since the start of the Bush administration.

"Aside from extremely established pundits, like Ann Coulter, I don’t see a lot of conservative books catching on. The real issue-oriented books are a lot less prevalent," said Adrian Zackheim, who heads the conservative Sentinel imprint at Penguin Group (USA).

Authors of the right are unsure who to attack, and who to defend. There are no clear front-runners, Democratic or Republican, for the 2008 election. Democrats took over Congress after the 2006 election, but publishers agree they have been in power too briefly, and have accomplished too little, to anger the right.....